William Fazio v. City and County of San Francisco Arlo Smith

How courts have described this case

Verbatim parenthetical descriptions written by other courts when citing this decision. Ranked by citation-network relevance.

• holding that Pickering balancing is not reached if the Branti exception applies
• stating that the relevant inquiry is whether “political considerations are appropriate requirements for the effective performance of the job”
• assistant district attorney handled high profile cases and was often quoted by media on matters of public interest
• “[T]he term policymaker as used in this context does not mean ‘one who makes policy.’ Rather, the term refers to a position in which political considerations are ‘appropriate requirements] for the effective performance of the public office involved.’ ”
• “[T]he term policymaker as used in this context does not mean ‘one who makes policy.’ Rather, the term refers to a position in which political considerations are ‘appropriate requirement[s] for the effective performance of the public office involved.’ ”
• “We hold that Assistant [District Attorney] Fazio was a policymaker. While his powers under the San Francisco Charter are identical to those of a rank and file ADA, they are also nearly identical to those of the actual DA.”

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).